// ARS TECHNICA — SPAZIO & SCIENZA
Rocket Report: Winter is coming for Themis; Cowboy Space adds iron to the fire
It’s been a good week for ULA, with big NASA contract, Vulcan nearing return-to-flight.
Welcome to Edition 9.17 of the Rocket Report! It’s been a while since an American company announced plans for a medium-lift new launch vehicle, but that’s what happened this week when a startup named Cowboy Space revealed specs for its Big Iron rocket, named for the classic country-western song by Marty Robbins. I’m a huge fan of the name. Maybe Cowboy Space is striking while the iron is hot as the space industry frets over demand for launch outpacing supply. However, Cowboy Space lags far behind so many other launch providers nearing the launch pad with their medium-class rockets, and the company didn’t have much hardware to show at this week’s big reveal. In other words, don’t mistake style for substance. But we’re rocket fans at Ars, and we wish them luck.
As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don’t want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.
Virgin’s new rocket plane reaches home port. The first of Virgin Galactic’s new Delta-class rocket planes left its Arizona factory Wednesday for a trip to Spaceport America in neighboring New Mexico, where it will undergo preparations for a test campaign culminating in suborbital flights to the edge of space, Ars reports. Virgin Galactic expects the craft’s first commercial spaceflight to take place “early” in the second quarter of 2027, but like every other projected date in aerospace, this should be taken with a grain of salt. Virgin Galactic halted commercial flights of its previous vehicle, VSS Unity, in 2024.
More to do … The company also revealed the rocket plane’s name: Apeiron. Engineers and technicians at Spaceport America will complete work on the vehicle’s avionics equipment and flight software. Following additional ground tests, Apeiron will be mated again to its carrier aircraft for captive carry tests, followed by a drop test and ultimately a powered test flight above 80 km. With Blue Origin’s retreat from the suborbital spaceflight market and SpaceX’s planned retirement of the orbital-class Dragon spacecraft, Virgin Galactic is the only company with a realistic chance of flying paying commercial passengers to space anytime soon.
ESA’s reusable rocket testbed seems cursed. The European Space Agency’s Director of Space Transportation, Géraldine Naja, said on October 22 that she was uncertain whether the agency would be able to complete the first flight of its Themis reusable rocket demonstrator before the end of the year, European Spaceflight reports. The single-stage rocket hopper has completed two countdown rehearsals at Esrange Space Center in Sweden, but the harsh Scandinavian winter may prevent Themis from taking flight this year.
Missed schedules … ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said in January that the Themis rocket’s first hop test would happen in the first quarter of 2026. Delays are nothing new for Themis. Officials originally expected the rocket’s first low-altitude hop test to occur in 2022. The rocket is powered by a reusable methane-fueled Prometheus engine. ArianeGroup, the company behind Europe’s Ariane rocket family, is the main contractor on Themis, which is supposed to test technologies for an eventual reusable replacement for the expendable Ariane 6.
Cowboy Space unveils new rocket. Cowboy Space on Monday released the first details about the launcher that it plans to loft before the end of 2028, Aviation Week & Space Technology reports. The rocket, named Big Iron, will be 282 feet (86 meters) tall and about 15 feet (4.7 meters) in diameter. Cowboy Space is developing a methane-fueled engine named Clydesdale. Nine of them will power the first stage, and the second stage will fly a single Clydesdale. Big Iron’s